Wang Mang had six sons, three of whom were killed by Wang Mang. They were: Wang Yu, the eldest son of Concubine who was forced to drink medicine and died, Wang Yue, the second son of Concubine, who was ordered to commit suicide, and Wang Lin, the fourth son of Concubine, who was forced to draw his sword and commit suicide. Interestingly, the deaths of Wang Yu and Wang Yu not only did not make Wang Mang bear the insult, but won Wang Mang a good reputation for the great righteousness and annihilation of relatives, and the twists and turns in this are really unexpected.
Wang Mang is a very important figure in history, after all, he stubbornly divided the Han Dynasty established by Liu Bang into two, and the new policy of Wang Mang that he implemented has become a topic frequently mentioned in later generations, and even more so, Wang Mang is a crosser, in any case, Wang Mang is indeed a great figure in the late Western Han Dynasty.
They stood out as important ministers in the middle of the dynasty and gradually held power in their hands until they usurped The Han, there is a very important reason, that is, Wang Mang is the nephew of Wang Zhengjun, and Wang Zhengjun is a long-lived, the four dynasties as the mother of the world, Shengsheng turned the Wang clan foreign relatives into one of the most powerful foreign relatives in the Western Han Dynasty, and Wang Mang is the most important member of the Wang family' foreign relatives.
Wang Mang entered the army during the Hancheng Emperor period, when Wang's foreign relatives had become the climate, with the support of the empress dowager Wang Zhengjun, plus Wang Mang himself was a moral model and extremely capable, so the promotion was very fast, and he became the Grand Sima at the age of 38, but Wang Mang soon ushered in a big test on his career road.
In 7 BC, Emperor Cheng of Han, who had left no heirs, died and was succeeded by his nephew Liu Xin, the Emperor of Han. Although Wang Zhengjun was the grandmother of Emperor Han Ai, empress Dowager Dingtao(Fu Zhaoyi of Emperor Yuan of Han Yuan) was still alive, and his birth mother Ding Ji was also alive, and they all followed Emperor Han into Beijing, so that they had new foreign relatives, and Emperor Han Ai naturally had a heart for Empress Fu and Ding Ji, and one of them became Empress Gong and the other became Empress Gong, and their food was the same as that of Wang Zhengjun.
This naturally caused Wang Zhengjun's dissatisfaction, and she even asked Wang Mang to beg the skeleton to threaten the Han Emperor, although Wang Mang's beggar skeleton was not formed at first, but the contradictions between the two sides intensified step by step. Once, there was a banquet in Weiyang Palace, and the inner order set up a curtain for Empress Fu to sit next to Wang Zhengjun, which was actually the meaning of sitting on an equal footing, and Wang Mang was furious after seeing it, and directly said: "Empress Dowager Dingtao's concubine, why should she be in harmony with the Supreme Lord!" ”
Neizhu Ling had to remove the curtain and re-choose a seat for Empress Fu, and Empress Fu was also very angry and refused to attend the banquet, Wang Mang's move was according to the concubines, which was ceremonial, but also hit the face of emperor of Han, and then there were more struggles between Emperor Han and Wang Zhengjun, and two years later, Empress Fu became the empress dowager, and Ding Ji became the empress dowager, and the chancellor Zhu Bo complied with the emperor's request to reduce Wang Mang to a commoner and remove his title and land.
After all, Wang Zhengjun was the empress dowager of the Eight Classics of Zheng'er, and the foreign relatives of the Wang clan were still huge, so naturally the Han Emperor could not do too much, but ordered Wang Mang to return to his fiefdom and retain his title and fiefdom, and the official position was gone.
Wang Mang had no choice but to return to Xinye, closed the door, and went into seclusion, which was about 5 BC, and when Wang Mang was living in Xinye, his son Wang Yu killed a slave.
The history books do not record why Wang Yue killed a slave, but after all, he killed people, how can Wang Mang, who has always been strict with himself, endure, and he is at the trough of his career, any negative news may make him live in seclusion forever, so Wang Mang decided to kill his relatives in righteousness, ordered Wang Yue to commit suicide, Wang Yue did not dare to disobey his father's orders, and could only choose death.
In fact, Wang Mang was indeed a good official at that time, and won the general praise of han dynasty officials, just during the three years of his seclusion in Xinye, hundreds of officials wrote letters to wang Mang to cry out for wang mang, and in 2 BC, another courtier mentioned Wang Mang's merits when the eclipse appeared, coupled with the pressure of Wang Zhengjun, the Han Emperor ordered Wang Mang to return to Beijing.
However, his officials were not reinstated. However, this was nothing for Wang Mang, because the following year, the Han Emperor, who had no heirs, died. As soon as emperor Ai of Han died, Wang Zhengjun took back the jade seal of chuanguo and pushed Wang Mang to the position of Grand Sima again.
At this time, Wang Mang was more powerful than before, and he supported another grandson of Emperor Yuan of Han, Liu Yan, to succeed him, that is, Emperor Ping of Han. At that time, the Han Ping Emperor was only nine years old, and Wang Zhengjun was in charge of the government, and Wang Mang was the actual ruler of the Han Dynasty, and his ambitions were gradually revealed during this period.
In order to prevent the recurrence of Empress Fu and Ding Ji during the Han Dynasty, Wang Mang did not allow Emperor Hanping's biological mother Wei Ji to enter the capital, but instead let Wei Ji and the Wei family remain in Zhongshan Kingdom.
To this end, Wang Mang worshipped Wei Ji as the Queen of Zhongshan, and Wei Ji's two brothers, Wei Bao and Wei Xuan, were divided into The Marquis of Guannei, allowing them to remain in Zhongshan to prevent Wei's foreign relatives from threatening Wang Mang. After all, no one was willing to make enemies for themselves, but Wang Mang's eldest son, Wang Yu, could not bear to look at it.
I don't know if Wang Yu really felt that doing so would make Emperor Hanping resent Wang Mang when he grew up, or whether he was thrown away by people with hearts, in short, Wang Yu tried his best to promote the Wei clan to enter Beijing, and he privately corresponded with Wei Bao, letting Wei Ji write to Beijing with his son Emperor Hanping, Wang Mang did not agree to Wei Ji's request.
Wang Yu saw that Wang Mang would not allow the Wei clan to enter Beijing, so he turned to his teacher Wu Zhang. Interestingly, Wu Zhang did not dissuade Wang Yu, but came up with an idea for Wang Yu, Wu Zhang believed that it was impossible to directly persuade Wang Mang to let the Wei clan enter The capital, but Wang Mang's good ghost god said that he could create some strange things to scare Wang Mang, and then Wu Zhang took the opportunity to persuade Wang Mang to return to wei.
As soon as Wang Yu heard that it was a good idea, he sent his brother-in-law Lü Kuan to sprinkle a basin of blood on Wang Mang's mansion in the middle of the night, hey, Wang Yu was really Wang Mang's own son. Wang Yu originally thought that this would definitely happen, but Lü Kuan was obviously a not very reliable teammate, and when he went to spill blood, he was discovered by the small officials in Wang Mang's mansion, and then Wang Yu was exposed.
When Wang Mang heard that his eldest son was actually against himself in this way, he directly could not bear it, threw Wang Yu into prison, and sent someone to send him poison, and Wang Yu was forced to drink the poison. Wang Yu was dead, but Wang Mang still did not understand the hatred, and he also imprisoned his pregnant daughter-in-law Lü Yan, and when Lü Yan gave birth to a son, he also killed her.
Wang Yu's death also earned Wang Mang a good reputation, and he wrote that Wang Yu had been tricked into doing the wrong things of Uncle Guan and Uncle Cai during the Western Zhou Dynasty, and should be punished. Wang Zhengjun also issued an edict praising Wang Mang, and then Wang Mang ordered a thorough investigation into Lü Kuan's deception of Wang Yu, implicating a large number of people who were at odds with Wang Mang.
The Book of Han records that "Mang was the one who destroyed the Wei clan, the prison of Lü Kuan, the prison of Lü Kuan, the one who even introduced the county state Hao Susu to criticize, the princess of Jingwu, Wang Li of Liang, the Marquis of Hongyang, and the Marquis of Ping'a, and the emissaries were forced to defend, and all committed suicide." ”
At this moment, hundreds of people were killed and shocked the government and the public, but Wang Mang was already a heavy minister in the dprk, and his status was unshakable, which did not bring infamy for Wang Mang, but on the contrary, some people beautified Wang Mang, and An Hangong felt that Wang Mang had killed his relatives in righteousness for the benefit of the royal family, and wrote eight articles to praise Wang Mang and warn his descendants.
Sima Da's protector sent a letter requesting that these eight articles of the Duke of An Han be copied to the counties and princely states, and that the scholars teach them to the students. This matter was soon given to the courtiers, "Please order the officials of the world to recite the public precepts, and write the official book, than the Book of Filial Piety." ”
Placing these eight articles of An HanGong on an equal footing with the Book of Filial Piety, the benefits brought by Wang Yu's death to Wang Mang were simply not too much.